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Central Daylight Time (1730 Greenwich Mean Time) atop a Saturn V launch
vehicle from Pad A of Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy SpaceCenter, Florida.
The workshop's initial orbit was 269 miles circular with an inclination to
the equator of 50 degrees.
An hour after launch, ground controllers still were waiting for confirma-
tion that the workshop's solar arrays had deployed, a signal they never
received.
Analysis of launch data showed a failure of the meteoroid shield some 63
seconds into the flight. Slight deployment of one of the two solar array wings,
which provided about half of the electrical power used in Skylab, also was
indicated.
The board appointed to investigate the failures reported on July 19 "Of
several possible failure modes of the meteoroid shield. ..the most probable
...was internal pressurization of its auxiliary tunnel which acted to force the
forward end of the meteoroid shield away from the shell of the workshop and
into the supersonic air stream.
"The breakup of the meteoroid shield, in turn, broke the tie downs that
secured one of the solar array systems. ...Complete loss of this solar array
system occurred at 593 seconds when the exhaust plume of the SolI stage
retro-rockets impacted the partially deployed solar array system."
In the hours after launch, NASA and contractor personnel worked to
salvagethe mission in the face of mounting trouble.
Skylab was maneuvered so its telescope mount solar arrays faced the Sun
to provide as much electricity aspossible. But in this attitude Skylab, without
the meteoroid shield that was to protect against solar heating as well, got too
warm -up to 126 degreesF inside.
Several NASA centers designed various thermal shields of reflective cloth
to protect the workshop's exposed areas from direct sunlight. Three shields
were decided upon -a parasol type to be deployed through an experiments
airlock in the lab was the primary device, a "sail" to be drawn up over a
twin-pole frame, and a similar sail to be deployed from the command module
were alternatives.
WEITZ
Another power problem occurred May 30 when four
of 18 battery packs in the telescope mount power supply
system showed they were taking less than one-half charge
from the solar arrays, a result of overheating during the
unmanned period.
While the crew continued a power-limited schedule of
experiments and observations, mission support personnel
worked out and tested procedures to free the jammed
solar wing.
Radioed to Sky lab one day, practiced inside the
workshop the next, the procedures were used on Day 14
of the mission, June 7.
Conrad and Kerwin spent about 4 hours and 10
minutes in extravehicuJar activity. They freed the array,
and within hours the electric power supply was such that
a mission close to the original plan was authorized.
On June 19, the 26th mission day, Conrad and Weitz
went EVA for 96 minutes to retrieve film from the
telescope mount. Conrad also reactivated a battery regu-
lator relay -he tapped the case with a hammer.
Splashdown came at 28 days 50 minutes, June 22,
some 830 miles southwest of San Diego, California.
When the three crewmen emerged from their space-
craft on the deck of the recovery ship U S S Ticonderoga, KERWIN: "In the lower body negative pressure device, we all
they appeared wobbly but well, dispelling fears that the experienced some degradation objectively on the measurements of
human body could not function after 4 weeks in the our ability to pool blood. ..in the lower extremities, which is
weightlessnessof space. what lower body negative pressure does."
LOUSMA
The crew did experience one situation not encount- By the 10th mission day, the crew was putting in
ered by the first crew -motion sensitivity. It bothered about 19 man-hours a day on scientific experiments, but a
them for the first few days of the mission but, as they week to 10 days later they were doing 27 to 30 man-hours
adapted to weightless flight, the astronauts recovered with of experiments each day.
no after-effects. Their output was such that where 26 Earth resources
experiment passeshad been planned, they actually ac-
complished 39. Data included the developing and decay-
ing stages of tropical storm Christine, drought-stricken
areas of Africa, and the active volcano Etna. The crew
took a look at an incipient severe storm over Oklahoma,
at a fishing operation in the Gulf of Mexico, and at an
Arizona ecological test site.
Some 206 hours of solar viewing had been planned,
305 were logged. Those viewing sessions took in two
major solar flares and numerous coronal transients.
In an already ambitious medical experiment program
of 327 planned runs, 333 were accomplished. Six more
corollary experiment runs than the planned 158 were
carried out, including the first orbital demonstrations of
astronaut maneuvering equipment.
Although student investigations ran behind schedule -
12 planned, 10 conducted -it was one of the high school
student proposals that introduced two new space per-
sonalities. Arabella and Anita, a pair of common cross
spiders, were orbited to demonstrate their ability to spin a
web without the influence of gravity assistingthem.
After a number of shaky starts, Arabella produced an
Earth-like web of creditable symmetry. Anita adapted
more quickly and spun good webs after just a few false
LOUSMA: "Owen's really the EVA record holder, , , , We worked starts. Anita died in space, apparently of starvation, and
a long time, We took our time. We did not get tired at any time, Arabella was found dead of unknown causes after her
even when we didn't have water cooling to assist us," return to Earth.
While the web formation investigation, one of seven
student experiments assigned to the mission, was con-
ducted for one person -a 17-year old Massachusetts girl
whose proposal was among 25 selected from 3,400-plus
submissions by high school students over the Nation -
other experiments involve substantial numbers and types
of organizations and people.
In Skylab's earth resourcesexperiments alone there are
some 100 American and 42 foreign academic investi-
gators, industrial investigators, and state, Federal, and
foreign government agency representatives.
At Skylab lift-off, more than 270 scientific and
technical investigations were scheduled for one or more of
the three manned missions and even, in some cases,for
unattended operation between missions.
Flight experience brought additional experiments and
scientific demonstrations, some of which used such
easy-to-obtain hardware as a coiled spring toy, a small
gyroscope, and some paper airplanes.
Details on most experiments are contained in "Skylab
Experiments Overview" (Stock No. 3300-0461) available
through the Government Printing Office for $1.75.
Accounts of each mission in greater depth than in this
necessarily brief summary can be found in weekly news
magazines on file in most public and many school
libraries.
For a full report on the missions, inquiry should be
made to the Government Printing Office and the National
Technical Information Service (see back page) on the GAR RIOTT: "AI's customary sleeping position was with his head
availability and purchase price of "Mission Report" and on the floor and his feet on the ceiling, , , he took the light off
the fixture at the top and mounted it down on the floor, , , ,"
"Preliminary Science Report" publications for a given
mission.
X-ray Spectrographic Telescope S054 Major contractors for the Skylab program were
American Science and Engineering The Boeing Company
955 MassachusettsAvenue Seattle, WA 98124
Cambridge, MA 02139
Chrysler Corporation
H-Alpha Telescopes New Orleans, LA 70129
Harvard College Observatory
60 Garden Street Martin Marietta Corporation
Cambridge, MA 02138 Denver,CO 80201
* U.S. GOVERNMENT
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OFFICE:1977-771.015/1734